Questions about looking for land

[EddieWalker]

I just remembered another thing to look into.

Property taxes.

Are there any exemptions on the land? Can you build a home on it and keep your exemptions? Here, you can surevey off an acre with your home on it and just pay the higher taxes on that one acre.

 

[Poppa]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I know a couple that bought some land about hour away from the "city" they built a house and moved back to town becuase they missed having a neighborhood to walk around, visiting with neighbors..
What im saying is make sure you want to make the "comminitment" to being secluded and without contact. Good thing i learned this the easy way from this couple...)</font>


Actually this is very important and very easy to overlook when you are first making the move from urban or suburban to rural living. When Sandi and I moved to where we are at now, we came from a fully developed suburban neighborhood. You know, the kind of place where you are less than five minutes from two different grocery stores...the kind of place where you can order Pizza from three different places to get it delivered. After six months out here we realized life was significantly different. Pizza places wouldn't acknowledge our existence, The cable company didn't come this far out . The grocery store was an hour roundtrip and the phone company charged a hefty surcharge for getting service to our house.

As time has progressed, the services and retailers have moved closer to us (good and bad). Sandi and I talk about moving further out and getting more land or a bigger house but the fact of the matter is we like being able to go shopping now without having to make a day of it. It's a feeling that I never would have thought about ten years ago and now am very aware of.

Asd for the comment about medical care. This too is not to be shaken off lightly. My parents saw where we are and talked about moving out here to be closer to the grandkids but at the time we were a solid hour from any medical help (interesting when Sandi was pregnant). That too has changed now and there are two brand new hospitals within 30 minutes of us but it is something to keep in mind.

Rural living is the best and worst of both worlds. If it is what you have always been used to then no problem but if it is the first move then make sure you are aware of all the change you are going to experience.

So after all this you might ask if I would do it again if I had it to do all over again...Oh yeah, absolutley but I would hope to be a little better prepared.


Mike

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( missed having a neighborhood to walk around, visiting with neighbors )</font>

Yes, I've known quite a few people who moved to the country, didn't like it, and moved back to town. Of course, we have done that, too, but not because we didn't like the place in the country. As for visiting with neighbors, yep, there were some neighbors who didn't seem to care to associate with anyone else, but plenty who did. The day I took possession of the place, one neighbor came to see if he could help. A couple of days later another showed up to introduce himself, and within a very short time, I found myself on the board of directors for the water company and on the volunteer fire department, working with neighbors on various projects, and playing dominoes with some of them on many evenings, etc.

Over 20 miles to the nearest grocery store, but if my wife was going, she always called a neighbor or two and they usually went with her, and of course they called her if they were going and she'd go along, they worked together many times canning produce from the gardens, we had "cookouts" together, etc. We actually associated with just about as many friends and neighbors in the country as we did in the city; just had to drive to visit each other instead of walking. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[NCDeere]

Man, I don't know what to say. I am certainly glad I found this website. You all have such good advice to offer.

I am about 45 min NW of Charlotte. The land is off a state highway and about 10 minutes from grocery stores in either direction. There is a good size hospital that is also about 10 minutes away. Heaven forbid, but they have a helicopter as well.

I am also worried about an old well. The property has an old house on it and a couple of outbuildings (all have fallen in). Probably built in the 40s or 50s from the looks of it. I didn't walk around it too much for the thought of a well and I was alone.

I have not had a chance to walk around the whole property, but like you guys said, it is a good idea to go to it at different times.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks for all the support.


Bryan

 

[Unclebuck257]

I'm not sure what your situation there in NC is regarding oil and gas or coal mining etc, but as has already been said, CHECK MINERAL RIGHTS!! It may not seem important to you now, but overnight, knowledge of those mineral rights, or lack thereof, could cost you your peace of mind and your entire investment.

Some states follow the old Spanish law, allowing people to seperate the surface rights and mineral rights, as seperate estates. I don't know about NC, but Texas is that way. I bought 50 acres about 97-98 and put up a house and barn on it, barbed wire fenced it, expanded a couple of stock tanks and turned it into my little piece of heaven. I basically put my life savings into it. They hadn't drilled an oil or gas well around where I bought, in about 25-30 years at that point.

All of a sudden, about 2 years ago, the drilling started again, and we found out we live right in the middle of, and on top of, the largest deposit of natural gas in THE WORLD!!

Now me and ALL my neighbors live in constant fear of a drilling rig showing up at our front gates any day and totally destroying what we have. It will happen, it's just a matter of when!! Know the deal on your mineral rights!!

If I had to do it all over again, I'd check not only mineral rights, but geological surveys too, and I would never move into an area where there was anything but dirt under my land, and I wouldn't buy if I didn't get mineral rights too!

Be careful!! I'm as serious as a heart attack about this too!!

 

[riptides]

To ease your fears, new drilling technologies allow for exploitation of resources from drill sites many miles away.

They drill sideways now-a-days.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Unclebuck257]

Riptides,

I appreciate your trying to make it sound better, but believe me, I live in the middle of it daily, and yes they can do horizontal drilling, but rarely do around here!! I've also got in laws deeply involved in drilling, so although you may think that's an out, in reality, it certainly isn't. They could do a lot of things, but many of these oil and gas producers are NOT the big guys, and do not have the capabilities, equipment wise or personell wise, to horizontal drill ANYTHING!! Don't buy into that garbage because that's all it is!!...pure BS!!

They tear up 3-4 acres with every well drilled, not to mention what they leave behind by way of those very ugly tanks on YOUR land, that YOU still pay the taxes on and can't even use, and those 18 wheeler tank trucks coming and going.

Hey, then there's the fact that many roughnecks working those rigs are ex cons and the crime rate goes way up in the immediate area of a well being drilled. Brother, again thanks for trying to help, but you're not in Texas and it's a mess here where I live!!

There's more, but you get the picture.

 

[riptides]

Agree, I hope it works out for you all. It is tough dealing with changes that may happen around or on your property.

I wish you the best.
-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[DaMadman]

I would agree with what someone else said about checking easements to and from the property as well as easements that might be ON the property.
If you have to cross other property owned by another person to get to the property you are thinking about purchasing make sure there is a clause in their deed that they cannot block the easement to your property. Likewise if there is any easement ON your property you want to make sure of who is responsible for the up keep and make sure you do not block that easement so someone else is blocked from getting to their property or you could be in for a heap of trouble.

I just bought a peice of property in Montana that I have to cross other people's property to get to mine. It is recorded in their deeds that they cannot block easement to my property and I cannot block easement to the property on the other side of my property. I picked the lot that I did because the easement is only across the bottom corner. The lot next to mine the easement runs right up throught the middle of the 20 acres and it cannot be blocked or built on.